The national government’s budget deficit went down by 39.67 percent in July 2024 to P28.8 billion from a year ago on the back of a double-digit growth in revenue growth which outpaced expenditure increases, according to the Bureau of Treasury (BTr).
It said despite the lower July figure, the budget gap in the first seven months increased 7.21 percent to P642.8 billion from a year earlier.
Data from the BTr show that revenue collections in July amounted to P457.4 billion, up 11.09 percent year-on-year. Tax collections, which comprised 88.07 percent of the total, grew 15.46 percent, while non-tax revenues, accounting for 11.93 percent, contracted 13.20 percent.
Revenue collections in the first seven months reached P2.6 trillion, up by 14.75 percent from P2.3 trillion in the same period last year.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) achieved a 17.09-percent growth in July collection amounting to P319.8 billion, net of P175 million tax refund.
The agency’s P1.7-trillion total collections as of end-July also grew by 12.70 percent from last year’s collection of P1.5 trillion.
“The YoY growth was due to higher collections of value added tax, income taxes, other domestic taxes and percentage taxes,” the BTr said.
“The growth in VAT collection was partly attributed to base effects as collections last year were lower by around two months’ worth of VAT collection with the shift from monthly to quarterly filing of VAT payments as mandated by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law,” it said.
The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) collection reached P80.4 billion in July, representing a growth of 9.99 percent.
The BOC’s total collection in the first seven months went up by 5.8 percent to P535.9 billion.
“The YoY growth in BOC revenue was due to higher collections from VAT, import duties and excise taxes. The positive revenue performance was also driven by peso depreciation, higher value and volume of imports, and higher international crude oil prices when compared with the same period last year,” the BTr said.
Income collected and generated by the BTr contracted to P19.9 billion in July from P50.8 billion a year ago. The decrease was primarily due to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ one-off remittance of P31.9 billion last year and reduced income from BTr-managed funds and NG deposits.
July disbursements reached P486.2 billion and were 5.80 percent higher than what was spent in 2023 partly due to the higher national tax allotment (NTA) share of LGUs.
The July outturn contributed to a higher YTD expenditure of P3.2 trillion, reflecting a 13.17 percent increase in disbursements.
Primary expenditures (net of interest payments) in July reached P406.8 billion, representing a 2.73-percent growth over last year. Total primary expenditures in the seven-month period amounted to P2.8 trillion, outperforming the P2.5 trillion posted in the corresponding period a year ago.
Interest payments (IP) amounted to P79.4 billion in July and increased by 24.99 percent year-on-year. This was due to the higher cost of financing and depreciation of the peso observed throughout the year.
